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Moffat Communications Ltd.

1929

Lloyd Moffat and R.E. (Bob) Price purchased the failing 10-BI Prince Albert for $500. The station had been launched in 1925 by the P.A. Radio Club. Moffat became chief engineer while Price was business manager.

1934

10-BI became commercial station CKBI.

1937

Lloyd Moffat became full owner of CKBI.

1946

Central Broadcasting Co. Ltd. acquired CKBI. Lloyd Moffat remained in Prince Albert to direct other business interests. Central was led by Ed Rawlinson.

1949

Bergman-Moffat Broadcasting Co. Ltd. applied for a new AM station in Winnipeg. Principals were Lloyd Moffat, former owner of CKBI Prince Albert and Major Norman Bergman, a Winnipeg barrister. Moffat would manage the new station. The application was approved by the CBC Board of Governors. The previous year, the CBC had acquired station CKY from Manitoba Government Telephones. CKY was replaced by the CBC’s brand new, high-powered CBW 990. With the CKY call letters now available, Moffat chose that call sign for his new station. The new CKY went on the air at 11:30 p.m., December 31.

1950

Application was made for the transfer of CKY from Bergman-Moffat Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to Broadcasting Station CKY Ltd. This was approved by the CBC. Lloyd Moffat, general manager of Bergman-Moffat would have control of the new company.

Edmonton’s CHED signed on the air in March. Lloyd Moffat had a minority interest in this operation (about 10%).

1960

Ralph S. Misener & Associates (OBCI) received federal approval to bring second television service to Winnipeg. The company was headed by Ralph Misener, a Winnipeg shipping executive. The associates included Lloyd Moffat, president of CKY Radio; T.O. Peterson, president of Investors' Syndicate of Canada Ltd.; Roland Couture, managing director of CKSB Radio St. Boniface; Walter E. Kroecker, president of CFAM Radio in Altona; Winnipeg lawyer Kendall Hayes, Q.C.; and engineering consultant, Nick Pappas of N.J. Pappas & Associates of Montreal.

Lloyd Moffat died unexpectedly while vacationing in Hawaii. He was succeeded by his son Randy, as president of the company.

1968

Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. announced that Randall L. Moffat and his sister, Donna M. Pryor, had exercised an option to buy the controlling interest of their uncle, Jack. D. Moffat, in CHAB Ltd. (CHAB-AM-TV Moose Jaw and CHRE-TV Regina). Jack Moffat had owned CHAB since 1958.

On May 30, Moffat Broadcasting received CRTC approval to acquire the Moose Jaw and Regina stations but would have to find another purchaser for CHRE-TV and CHAB-TV within a year or the licences would be automatically revoked. Both stations were CTV affiliates and the network was owned by its affiliated stations. Moffat already owned 50% of CJAY-TV in Winnipeg, another CTV station. No person or company could control more than one CTV station. Moffat agreed to transfer its rights, powers and obligations as a CTV member to G. Ross Snead for one year. He would act as a representative of CHAB Ltd. on the CTV board during this period.

Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. was awarded all Western Conference CFL broadcast rights for 1968 through 1970. Moffat owned CKY-AM-FM and CJAY-TV Winnipeg, CKXL-AM Calgary, CKLG-AM-FM Vancouver and part of CHED-AM Edmonton. The CFL Western Conference consisted of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders and the British Columbia Lions.

1969

On July 18, CHAB Ltd. had its application to sell CHAB-TV and CHRE-TV to Western Broadcast Management Ltd. denied. The CRTC instead approved the sale of the stations to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In September, CHAB-TV and CHRE-TV became CBKMT Moose Jaw and CBKRT Regina.

James M. Pryor was named chairman of the board of Moffat Broadcasting Ltd.

On November 22, Moffat purchased the remaining shares of CKXL Calgary not already held. The Bow Valley Broadcasting name was dropped and CKXL became a direct subsidiary of Moffat.

1972

Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. offered its shares to the public, becoming Moffat Communications Ltd. Before the share offer, the company was owned as follows: Donna Hardstaff (nee Moffat) 50% and Randall Moffat 50%. Randall Moffat now held 51.2% and the public offering was 38.8%. The Certificate of Amendment for the change of Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. to Moffat Communications Ltd. was issued August 7.

CJAY-TV became wholly owned by Moffat Communications Ltd. and on June 1, the call letters changed to CKY-TV, for consistency with sister radio stations CKY-AM and FM. The television station operated under the corporate name of MTV Limited.

Mid-1970's

CKY-FM Winnipeg became CITI-FM.

1978

Moffat Communications Ltd. was given approval to purchase a further 55% interest in Radio Station CHED Ltd. (Edmonton).

1979

J.R. (Ron) Mitchell died on August 20 while on vacation in Florida. He was 46. Mitchell was President of Moffat Communications Ltd., MTV Ltd. (CKY-TV) and Winnipeg Videon Ltd. He had been associated with the company for several years.

1980

Randall L. (Randy) Moffat, Chair of Moffat Communications Ltd., assumed the post of president, following the death of Ron Mitchell.

1981

Moffat was given CRTC approval to purchase CJJD-AM Hamilton from CJJD Radio Ltd. (Keith J. Dancy). The call letters would later return to CHAM, having changed to CJJD-AM in 1976 on acquisition by Dancy.

1982

Moffat acquired a 10.8% interest in the Winnipeg Jets hockey club.

Lloyd Moffat was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame.

1987

CKXL Calgary changed its call letters to CISS.

1989

On September 28, the CRTC approved the applications by Moffat Communications Limited, representing a company to be incorporated, for authority to acquire CHED and CKNG-FM Edmonton from Moffat Communications Limited and CFCN Communications Limited. Under the proposed shareholders' agreement, Moffat would hold 72.5% of the common voting shares with CFCN holding the remaining 27.5%. The shareholders' agreement provided for CFCN's share of the new company to be increased to 35% during the first three years of its operation, at the option of either CFCN or Moffat, and that both CKNG-FM and CHED would be managed on a day-to-day basis by Moffat, with overall direction provided by a Board of Directors comprised of representatives of each of Moffat and CFCN. CFCN was controlled by Maclean-Hunter Ltd. The new company that acquired CHED and CKNG-FM was known as Moffat-MH Radio.

1991

In September, CISS Calgary became CFXX.

1992

Moffat Communications decided to exit the radio business, and on August 20, the CRTC approved applications to sell CHAM Hamilton, CFXX Calgary and CHAB Moose Jaw to Elmer Hildebrand's Golden West Broadcasting Ltd.; CKY-AM and CITI-FM Winnipeg to Rogers Broadcasting Ltd.; and CKLG and CFOX-FM to Shaw Radio Ltd.

On the same date, the Commission also approved the applications by a partnership between Moffat Communications Limited and Manipro Ltd. for authority to acquire the assets of CHED and CKNG-FM Edmonton from Moffat-MH Radio. Moffat-MH Radio was a partnership in which Moffat Communications Limited had a 67.5% interest and CFCN Productions Limited a 32.5% interest. The basis of this transaction was for Moffat to acquire CFCN's interest in this partnership and to continue the partnership in order to facilitate the sale of CHED and CKNG-FM to a third party. As a result of this transaction, the effective control of the licences would not change. Moffat's interest in the partnership would be increased to 99%. Manipro Ltd. would have a 1% interest. The Commission then approved the applications by Westcom Radio Group Ltd. for approval to subsequently acquire the assets of CHED and CKNG-FM. Westcom was part of Western Broadcasting Co. Ltd. of Vancouver.

1994

On June 6, the CRTC granted a six-year licence to Moffat to operate a Canadian specialty television service which would be distributed nationally as the Women’s Television Network (WTN).

1995

WTN commenced operations on January 1.

1996

On July 1, Moffat sold its 10.67% voting interest in Jets Hockey Ventures.

1997

On November 12, 1997, Moffat sold its 14.2% interest in the CTV Television Network to Baton Broadcasting. Despite this, CKY-TV Winnipeg continued to be a CTV affiliate.

1999

On August 5, Moffat purchased 8,530 common shares of WTN from a minority shareholder which increased its equity interest in WTN from 69% to 77%.

2001

On March 23, the CRTC conditionally approved application for authority to effect a change in the effective control of Moffat Communications Limited, through the transfer of the majority of the voting interests in Moffat to Shaw Communications Inc. and 911264 Alberta Ltd. With the acquisition of those 32,918,199 Moffat/public shares (being approximately 84% of Moffat's voting interests), together with the 5,720,772 Moffat shares (15%) previously owned by Shaw, Shaw directly and indirectly owned 38,638,971 Moffat common voting shares or over 99% of the outstanding Moffat voting interests.

Moffat was the parent company of Videon CableSystems Inc. (operating 20 cable systems in Manitoba and three in Northern Ontario) and of Videon CableSystems Alberta Inc. (operating 25 cable systems in Alberta). It was also the licensee of the CTV affiliate CKY-TV Winnipeg and its retransmitters as well as the parent company of Lifestyle Television (1994) Limited, licensee of the specialty service "Women's Television Network" (WTN). Moffat's holdings also included a new regional video-on-demand service licensed to Videon CableSystems Inc., and it also had a small interest in the Canadian Public Affairs Channel through its holding of Videon CableSystems Inc.

Shaw committed to divest itself of Moffat's television assets (WTN and CKY-TV) to Corus Entertainment Inc.

For the record, Moffat also owned a number of cable systems in Florida and Texas (U.S.A.).